Legal, political news, analysis. Breaking Wisconsin election-law news, with emphasis on voting rights. News on the Wysocki Family of Companies CAFO in central Wisconsin.

Feb 22, 2015

Scott Walker Runs for Special Interests, Targets Wisconsin Families

One-quarter of the Wisconsin electorate can reelect Scott Walker, but the rest of Wisconsin cannot make him act for the common good vis a vis Walker's campaign financiers and special interests.

Having cast his destructive intentions against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin System, this anti-public-minded, dishonest ideologue is playing the role of candidate for the GOP nomination for the U.S. presidency, demonizing President Obama in questioning Obama's faith as a Christian this weekend, saying, "I don’t know" if Obama is a Christian at a Party event in Washington. (Liebenthal,Crooks and Liars)

Though Walker'sspectacle is merely a prolonged fundraising campaign for the anti-intellectual Walker whom more sensible Republicans in the rest of the nation reject, Walker can and is inflicting much damage to Wisconsin as he races across the country from fundraiser to fundraiser.

Here are the facts about how Wisconsin will look if we enact their law:

Wisconsin workers like you and I will make as much as $6,000 less a year on average;

Wisconsin public school students will have $3,400 less per student for their education;

Wisconsin will have more people in poverty and a higher infant mortality rate; and

Wisconsin will have even higher unemployment.

Wisconsin can’t afford this attack on our families. We have to stand united against this. We will be working around the clock to fight back. We’re already digging in on additional research we will share with you and the media as soon as it’s completed.

Meanwhile, Walker's sell-out of our precious waters continues as Walker acts for the interests of Big Ag polluters against families in rural Wisconsin.

From Protect Wood County, fighting a proposed massive factory farm in central Wisconsin that would direct millions of tons of liquid waster into the waters and air:

Wisconsin State Budget Disaster

Where do I even begin my discussion of our proposed state budget? The potential cuts and dismantling of our proud Wisconsin heritage is beyond believable, yet we are faced with the clear indication that the budget will pass with little tweaking from our elected officials unless we act now. Look at the budget from any angle and it's all the same: this budget is bad. Bad for our natural resources. Bad for what we hold dear. Bad for Wisconsin. In short the following areas are of immediate concern and need to be voiced loud and clear to everyone in Madison. Below are quick bullet point regarding sections of the budget. For a comprehensive look as to why these proposed cuts are bad look HERE for additional explanation provided from the League of Conservation Voters.

REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to reduce the state’s share of the County Conservation staffing grant. Establish funding at the original base of $9,379,800 annually.

REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to reduce the state’s share of funding levels for nutrient management plans in the budget.

This of course is not all that is bad with the budget. Myself being a public school teacher could go on for hours about the cuts proposed to public education and our university system but that is for another email group. To view the budget in its entirety see the attached links - Budget in Full and Budget Brief. Contact state reps now and voice your concerns.

LRB 1446

Thank you to all who responded to our call for assistance and wrote our WI representatives regarding LRB 1446. Our purpose was to encourage legislators to NOT sign on as a supporter of the proposed legislation. Even if you did not get a chance to write your state representatives prior to the sign-on deadline we ask that you still take the time to write and show your opposition to the proposed legislation. Although those who signed onto the bill are promoting it as a bill for the Family Farmer it is no such thing. It is opening the doors wide for large scale agriculture to buy up land with high capacity wells and use them at their discretion without triggering DNR review. If you missed my first email regarding this subject it is attached HERE for your convenience.

LRB−0995/2

LRB 0995/2 is a piece of legislation we can actually get behind and support! Sen Mark Miller contacted me last week to discuss his Groundwater Management Bill LRB 0995/2. This bill is in direct contrast to typical water bills we observed coming through our legislature in previous sessions. It is very important that we again write ALL our state representatives, those that answer to us, and those that do not, and encourage support of LRB 0995/2.

To assist those who struggle with letter writing I again have formed a few options for you to copy and paste into an email. Please be sure when filling out the signature lines that you include your full name, address, and phone number. Without this information your letters are discarded. To read the proposed LRB 0995/2 in its entirety click HERE

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Bernie Sanders in 2020

Wrongfully Convicted: Penny Brummer

Federal Voting Rights Court Cases

- Gill v. Whitford, (District Court (Case 3:15-cv-00421)) (2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155022 (W.D. Wis., Nov. 17, 2015)), is a federal case challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin's Republican-drawn legislative-redistricting scheme- One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen(U.S. District Court of the Western District of Wisconsin (Case 15-cv-324)) - Frank v. Walker- Since 2011 Wisconsin Republicans have made some 34 changes to Wisconsin election law to keep Republicans in political power (Katelyn Ferral, The Capital Times)

Scariest 14 Words in Politics

I'm from the Republican Party and I'm here to save Social Security and Medicare.

Social Security and Medicare Targeted by Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping Colleagues

"I left as an act of rational self-interest. Having gutted private-sector pensions and health benefits as a result of their embrace of outsourcing, union busting and 'shareholder value' the GOP now thinks it is only fair that public-sector workers give up their pensions and benefits, too. Hence the intensification of the GOP's decades-long campaign of scorn against government workers. Under the circumstances, it is simply safer to be a current retiree rather than a prospective one. If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté. They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be 'forced' to make 'hard choices' - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked."

Trump's dog whistles to racists including white municipal police continue. From August 2016 in West Bend, Wisconsin, as reported by Yamiche Alcindor in the New York Times:

Jack Beck, 65, a retired bricklayer who lives in West Bend, said he planned to vote for Mr. Trump.

"Every night in Milwaukee, there is someone being shot, and they make nothing of that until a cop is involved, and then all of a sudden it’s always blamed on the cop," said Mr. Beck, who added that he hoped West Bend’s black population would not increase. He tied much of the unrest in Milwaukee to his belief that black residents do not want to work hard and instead want to use police killings to get handouts from the government.
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"You do not preach and encourage hatred for the Negro and hope to restrict it to that field. It is an old, old story. It is one repeated over and over again in history. When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe."— Ralph McGillAtlanta Constitution, Oct. 13, 1958A Church, A School

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Spotting Political Prosecutions

Alex Kozinski on liberty

"The right to do what the law does not prohibit, without fear of harassment or punishment, is one of the hallmarks of a free society." — Judge Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Foreword in Sidney Powell's Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice (Brown Books Publishing Group, 2014))

Wisconsin Misconduct in Public Office

SCR 946.12(3). Misconduct in public office. Any public officer or public employee who does any of the following is guilty of a Class I felony. See link above.

Class-action, civil rights suit against Milwaukee

"For almost a decade, the Milwaukee Police Department has pursued an aggressive and unconstitutional policing strategy promoting large numbers of stops and frisks citywide. Between 2007 and 2015, the department almost tripled their traffic and pedestrian stops, from around 66,000 to around 196,000, following the launch of the program in 2008."

Milwaukee residents have long protested that police officers are conducting stops and frisks of innocent people, and particularly treating people of color as suspects for no good reason, stopping innocent men, women, and children as they try to go about their daily lives. The department conducts far more stops and frisks in the parts of Milwaukee that are predominantly Black or Latino than in other areas."- From the ACLU

Political-legal news

Sea of individual rights

"When conservatives like [Robert] Bork treat rights as islands surrounded by a sea of government powers, they precisely reverse the view of the Founders as enshrined in the Constitution, wherein government powers are limited and specified and rendered as islands surrounded by a sea of individual rights."- Stephen Macedo. The New Right v. the Constitution (Washington: Cato Institute, 1987)

On being police

Scott Walker—Frontman for Rightwingers

"The simplest way I can tell you is we had total and complete unity between the state party, quite frankly, Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party groups, the Grandsons of Liberty. The [Glenn Beck-instigated] 9/12ers were involved. It was a total and complete agreement that nobody cared who got the credit, that everyone was going to run down the tracks together..." ...

The Strike — The Improbable Story of an Iconic 1886 Painting of Labor Protest

James M. Dennis, professor emeritus of art history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

President Theodore Roosevelt on Veterans

Republicans are after veterans' benefits: "A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - President Theodore Roosevelt. Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903

On the Fourth Amendment, back in 1972

"The price of lawful public dissent must not be a dread of subjection to an unchecked surveillance power. Nor must the fear of unauthorized official eavesdropping deter vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in private conversation."
- Justice Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., writing for unanimous court in: United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972)

Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

National Weather Sites

Radar Map

Bertrand Russell

"Those whose lives are fruitful to themselves, to their friends, or to the world are inspired by hope and sustained by joy: they see in imagination the things that might be and the way in which they are to be brought into existence. In their private relations they are not pre-occupied with anxiety lest they should lose such affection and respect as they receive: they are engaged in giving affection and respect freely, and the reward comes of itself without their seeking. In their work they are not haunted by jealousy of competitors, but concerned with the actual matter that has to be done. In politics, they do not spend time and passion defending unjust privileges of their class or nation, but they aim at making the world as a whole happier, less cruel, less full of conflict between rival creeds, and more full of human beings whose growth has not been dwarfed and stunted by oppression."

U.S. Supreme Court Decision - Michigan Dept of State Police v. Sitz

Michael Leon

Michael Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His reporting has been recognized by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Leon's writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, The Advocate, In These Times, CounterPunch and The Champion—the journal of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and locally in the Isthmus, the Capital Times and the Fitchburg Star. Leon works as a writer, editor, veterans' advocate, and public relations consultant.